Mandatory Quarantines and $10,000 Fines: What You Need To Know About Domestic Travel Restrictions Right Now

With Pandemic Summer underway, now feels like the perfect time to stretch your legs, roll down your window, hang up your mask, put your mask back on (there’s still a pandemic), and what have you. Travel. It’s the time to travel. Sure, you’re more than likely not hopping on a flight right now, but a day-trip might be fair game, right? Not so fast. New York governor Andrew Cuomo just unleashed a fresh batch of COVID-19 travel restrictions for incoming visitors—and it’s not the only state imposing new rules.

On Wednesday, Gov. Cuomo announced that New York is requiring eight states with a surge of high COVID-19 cases to do a mandatory two week quarantine period. New Jersey and Connecticut will apply the same restrictions in order to keep the tri-state area in tip-top shape. So whether you were planning a trip to the shore or upstate, there might be some complications on that end. And it makes you question, what other states are getting strict about domestic visitors? Will it be a summer sans vacation?

Nah. But Before you pack your bags for that road trip, here are all the states that currently have travel restrictions for out-of-state visitors.

COVID-19 travel restrictions by state

Florida

Florida actually requires anyone with “substantial community spread” from the tri-state area—New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut—to quarantine for two weeks.

Hawaii

Pretty much any visitors and returning residents are mandated to quarantine for two weeks, and head straight to their designated quarantine location after filling out a declaration form.

Kansas

Kansas requires travelers from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas and Maryland quarantine for—you guessed it—two weeks.

Maine

Barring visitors from New Hampshire and Vermont, all visitors to Maine can choose between the fourteen-day quarantine or present proof of a negative COVID-19 test result that was taken within the last three days.

Massachusetts

All travelers to Massachusetts must quarantine for two weeks, with the exception of healthcare workers, public health workers, public safety workers, transportation workers and other designated essential workers.

New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut

So here’s the situation: As of right now, anyone coming to New York from a COVID-19 hot-zone states have to quarantine for two weeks. Those states currently include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah. Basically if you’re from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents, or a state with a 10 percent or higher rate over a seven-day rolling average, you need to sit tight for those two weeks. If you’re out and about and caught violating this order, you could be “subject to a judicial order and mandatory quarantine.”

Oh, and the best part? In New York, the first violation could result in a $2,000 fine and could go up to $10,000 for subsequent violations. So if you have to visit NYC this summer, make sure to have some solid watch material lined up.

Rhode Island

Visitors and returning residents to Rhode Island who are coming from a state under stay-at-home orders are required to quarantine for 14 days.